Heal the Bay Blog

With the one-year anniversary of the establishment of California’s statewide network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) coming up on Dec. 19, we wanted to highlight some of the recent coastal use trends we’re seeing in Los Angeles MPAs, with data collected through Heal the Bay’s MPA Watch volunteer scientist program.

Through MPA Watch, Heal the Bay is assessing how people actually use L.A.’s underwater parks. Are they kayaking, wildlife watching, and enjoying the beaches along the MPAs? Do we see any evidence of non-compliance, which may indicate a need for more education, outreach, and signage? Are there any trends since the MPAs became effective in January 2012?

Volunteers participating in Heal the Bay’s MPA Watch program are trained to observe and collect human use data on coastal and marine resource use in and outside of MPAs along the Palos Verdes and Malibu coast. Since 2011, Heal the Bay’s MPA Watch volunteers have completed over 1,500 surveys. Our staff marine scientists recently put together an annual data report to share our findings.

Fishing activity in Los Angeles’ underwater parks appears to have declined in 2013. Perhaps this is a result of the MPA signage installed in Malibu and Palos Verdes early in the year, enforcement presence, or from increased awareness and education efforts in the community. Whatever the cause, we feel heartened by this trend. Non-compliant shore-based rod/reel fishing dropped dramatically at the start of MPA implementation (2012) from survey observations in Malibu, averaging four individuals at any given time, to a value close to zero in 2013.

More people are wildlife watching and tidepooling in Palos Verdes’ MPAs in 2013 than 2012. Based on our MPA Watch surveys from 2012-13, we’ve seen participation in both activities increase notably within MPAs, while remaining relatively flat outside of the MPAs. The average number of people engaged in viewing wildlife in Palos Verdes’ MPAs more than doubled from four to almost 10, while the average number of people observed tidepooling increased from two to 14. These trends suggest that the third goal of the Marine Life Protection Act, which calls for MPAs to “improve recreational, educational, and study opportunities provided by marine ecosystems,” is showing early signs of being met.

California residents are embracing MPAs and joining local efforts to monitor them. They are making a difference in ocean protection – and you can too! Help support Marine Protected Areas by joining Heal the Bay’s MPA Watch Program. This group of volunteers monitors the use of coastal and ocean MPAs, providing a priceless look at how people are using these new conservation areas.

Learn more about MPA Watch and join our upcoming trainings in February 2014.

Picture yourself volunteering here: One of the Marine Protected Areas along the Southern California coast.

Heal the Bay chief executive Ruskin Hartley says it doesn’t do much good to fight over the specifics of particular desalination projects.

Wednesday was a big day for us at Heal the Bay. After years of work, days spent reviewing environmental documents, and five hours at a contentious hearing, the proponents of a massive desalination plant in Huntington Beach withdrew their project. The writing was on the wall — their project, as presented, was not going to be approved.  Of course, the project has not gone away. Not yet anyway.

We’re not opposed to desalination. We believe other, more cost-effective and energy efficient measures, like water reuse and conservation, should be maximized first. The body of research on best practices for desal is still growing, and we recognize that it could be a tool to meet future water needs, when used carefully in the right setting. The Huntington Beach project was simply at the wrong place, at the wrong time, and at a massive scale (the largest proposed plant in the Western Hemisphere). You can read more about the hearing and the issues in a recent blog post by my Heal the Bay colleague Dana Murray.

This week’s desal debate did have me drawing similarities to my work for years in the redwoods. My experience has been that any time you start to focus down on one patch of dirt (or forest, or water), the temperature rapidly rises and agreement can be elusive. If you can step back and look at the issue more holistically and from a broader geographic perspective, you can back into an agreement that works for all. 

It reminds me of watching my two older boys play in the woods. While there may be sticks all around, when it comes down to it, they both want the same one. It’s tough to share one stick. But step back and look at the forest and there’s a way.

To take a broader example: an aggressive timber harvest plan adjacent to a beloved park is always going to be contentious. Especially when it involves ancient redwoods. But pull back a bit and look at how and where to meet our need for timber and park protection, and you may have the basis for an agreement. Similarly, a  massive desalination plant near ecologically important places, like marine protected areas and wetlands, is always going to be given a tough look (we and are colleagues will make sure of that).

It’s time to step back and look more holistically and regionally at our water needs.  Desalination — as part of a portfolio of local water supply, smart conservation, and re-use — may well be appropriate if smart technologies are employed and siting doesn’t significantly degrade marine life or habitat. But to my knowledge, the question of places to best site such desal plants has never been asked (let alone answered).

Meanwhile, we are left fighting over particular projects. I for one feel our time would be better spent figuring out a long-term solution that protects our bay and coastal waters, while providing reliable water at reasonable cost.

Heal the Bay staff scientist Dana Murray reports on the shelving of a poorly conceived desalination plant in Huntington Beach.

What is the future for ocean desalination in California?

That’s what hundreds of passionate people came out to debate at today’s California Coastal Commission meeting about Poseidon Water’s proposed desalination plant in Huntington Beach.

There’s no debate that the Poseidon project is precedent-setting and will have long-term impacts on the future health of California’s ocean. A coalition of groups concerned about the devastating effects that open-ocean intakes can have on marine ecosystems, including NRDC, Surfrider, California Coastal Protection Network, Orange County Coastkeeper and Heal the Bay, has been monitoring the situation closely. If the proposed plan went forward, it would inform decision-making on several other plants now on the drawing boards up and down the coast.

I may have griped a bit about rising before dawn and driving more than five hours round-trip in traffic jams to the meeting in Huntington Beach, but today turned out to be a wonderful day for ocean advocates fighting for sustainable seas. It also reinforced my trust in Coastal Commission staff doing a thorough job and Commissioners’ exercising sound judgment.

Our communications department is always admonishing us to not “bury the lead.” So here it is: after hours of debate and staff presentations that made it clear that the current proposal wouldn’t pass muster, Poseidon pulled it off the table.

Huntington Beach residents clad in white holding “NO PO$EIDON” signs, union workers in construction helmets, staff from environmental NGOs that have been working on desalination issues for years and just about every past mayor of Huntington Beach all showed up today.

Four hours into the meeting, Commission chair Mary Shallenberger reported that staff had received so many public comment request cards that it would take 12 hours to hear everyone if we were each given two minutes to speak! An already long day had just gotten longer…

Coastal Commission staff presented well-researched facts about Poseidon’s project, recommending significant changes should the Commission decide to approve it. Referring to California’s Marine Life Protection Act and Once-Through Cooling Policy, Commission staff stated that “approving the project today ‘as is’ would set California’s marine and coastal policies backwards.”

Heal the Bay supported Commission staff’s recommendations and stressed the precedent-setting nature of today’s decision, asking Commissioners:  “What do we want future desalination in California to look like? This outdated and environmentally destructive design?”

Heal the Bay and other NGOs urged  the Coastal Commission to set the desalination bar higher. Approving the proposed project today would set the bar far too low for environmental sustainability in California.

One of the critical areas of debate was whether Poseidon’s plan of using open ocean intakes versus environmentally preferred sub-surface intakes made sense. Open ocean intakes can pull in more than 100 million gallons of water each day and tens of millions of fish larvae, eggs and marine invertebrate.

Many public commenters, Commission staff, and Commissioners pointed to the superior technology of sub-surface intakes and stressed that the better technology is available. Poseidon refused to incorporate it, with numerous excuses about infeasibility, costs, and time.

Some elected officials and union workers testified in support of the proposal, but didn’t discuss the specific merits of the project or rebut challenges. Rather, they talked in a general way about how Southern California needs drinking water and desalination is a key way to ensure future supply.

However, not everyone is drinking what Poseidon has to offer. Commissioner Dayna Bochco summed it up: “Logic is against this project.”

Following five hours of public comment, deliberation began with Bochco, who is also a Heal the Bay board member, directly stating: “We must do [desalination] right and I do not believe this project is right.”

Bochco underscored the negative environmental impacts of the proposed plan, noting “this is an area surrounded by marine protected areas … and this intake and outflow will affect the MPA network connectivity … with potential for very severe marine life harm.”

After more than two hours of deliberation among Commissioners, and a couple of different motions, Poseidon ultimately withdrew its application for the project permit. Company officials indicated they plan to re-apply with a more complete application, and more feasibility studies.

Shallenberger advised Poseidon that the “best way to get a ‘yes’ is to work with staff … going forward, get all the studies done and bring it to us complete.”

Today, we helped stall a badly conceived proposal, but the general discussion about the feasibility of desal plants up and down the coast continues … and Heal the Bay will be part of it.

While we will keep a close eye on Poseidon’s reworked proposal in the near-term, the state needs to have long-term desalination policy that ensures we don’t suck the life out of the ocean to meet our never-ending thirst for water. Our science and policy team will continue to track the process and weigh in on the formulation of the upcoming statewide policy.

Stay tuned.

            A packed house debated the future of desalination in California at  the November 13 Coastal Commission hearing.

Heal the Bay CEO Ruskin Hartley reveals the magic of marine protected areas:

This week, Sarah Sikich, one of Heal the Bay’s scientists, is in France at an international conference discussing Marine Protected Areas — MPAs in the vernacular of ocean conservancy. I was aware of them from my work along the redwood coast, as Save the Redwoods League owned land adjacent to an MPA in Sonoma County. But I’ve never thought much about them. Turns out Heal the Bay has been a leader in development of these so-called Yosemites of the Sea here in Southern California. And MPAs are pretty fascinating. Trust me.

MPAs are a simple and elegant solution to a thorny problem. Over the years, society has over-fished the oceans. Along the way fish stocks have collapsed, harvests have been reduced, and the actual fish caught have become smaller. It’s been bad for the ocean, bad for the fishery industry, bad for folks who recreate on the ocean, and bad for anyone who eats fish. And that’s pretty much everyone!

It’s also a classic “tragedy of the commons” problem. Basically, each individual fisherman sees direct benefit from landing extra fish while the consequences of reduced catch are spread over everyone else. It’s the same principle as people getting into their car in a busy metropolis even though they know it contributes to gridlock and local air pollution.

Traditionally, fishery regulation has relied on a species-by-species approach. This simply pushes the problem off to another species. It’s the same model we have for endangered species on land. And many smart conservationists now agree that neither approach works well. Fortunately because the ocean is a commons, we have the chance to try new solutions.

MPAs shift the thinking from individual species to entire ocean systems. Basically you set aside areas of the ocean as no-fishing zones. Put these in the right place and with the right configuration and they become nurseries for fish. You get more fish, bigger fish, and they have more young. Not only is this good for fishermen, but it’s good for conservation of the ocean system as a whole. What’s more the science has shown this works.

Over the last few years, California has established a network of 123 MPAs that cover 16 percent of state waters. Here in Southern California, we helped establish MPAs off Palos Verdes, Point Dume and Catalina Island. Worldwide there are now 5,000 MPAs across 80 countries. It’s a great start and we’re already starting to see fish stocks recover.

But MPAs in state waters cover only a tiny fraction of the oceans. State-waters extend out three miles. Federal waters 200 miles. And then it’s a free for all. The big question I have is whether the international community can come together to forge an agreement to extend what works at a state and federal level. Ultimately, we can all do our part, but it’s going to take coordinated global action to save our oceans.

If you want to get more involved, please consider volunteering for our group of citizen scientists who gather data in our MPA Watch program.

Black perch congregate in MPA off Catalina Island